Song Character Analysis Worksheet - The University of North ...

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Why Show Boat? The selection of Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II’s musical, Show Boat (1927), as a gender-based performance practice model was determined for several prac- tical reasons. The first, and most obvious, reason is that this show is the progenitor of all subsequent American productions. Its premiere in December 1927 was the debut of a new form of dramatic and musical collaboration, a mature integration of plot, libretto, music, and stage action. It is the original book musical. 11 Show Boat was unusual for its time as a serious musical drama in the midst of frivolous musical comedies that typified the carefree, urbane attitude of the 1920s. The 1927 Broadway season was a lucrative one with fifty new musicals produced. These included the musical comedy hits of Irving Berlin’s Ziegfeld Follies of 1927; George and Ira Gershwin’s successful Funny Face; Vincent Youmans’ Hit the Deck; as well as Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart’s A Connecticut Yankee. These shows introduced enduring Broadway and jazz standards, including Kern’s “Ol’ Man River” and “Can’t Help Lovin’ ‘dat Man,” Gershwin’s “‘S Wonderful,” and Rodgers and Hart’s “Thou Swell.” Viewed from a twenty-first century perspective, each of these shows provides a cultural snapshot of current fashions, humor, political thought, social mores, gender roles, and prejudices that represent urban New York City society in the late 1920s. Show Boat, however, stands out as an amalgamation of turn-of-the-century American society, within and without the New York bubble. It is the epitome of Geoffrey Block’s definition for a musical worthy of canonization: 11 Show Boat’s claim to pre-eminence as the first modern American musical versus Hammerstein’s later show with Richard Rodgers, Oklahoma! (1945), is still strongly debated among musical theatre critics and historians. However, it is included (sometimes as an exception) as the first American musical in every canon of classic musicals. 5
The musicals that have entered the canon represent the most thoughtful, imaginative, and generally most consuming work of their creators . . . who often consciously set out to surpass the expectations of their genre and their time, whether by musical and lyrical sophistication, by dramatic credibility, or by greater unification of music, drama, and dance. 12 The second reason for the use of Show Boat as a gender-based performance practice model is its marked departure from the contemporary trends of revue and comedy as a musical drama. As a dramatic book musical it incorporates comedic elements, but its primary purpose is to present social issues that affect and influence an audience under the guise of entertainment. The creators of the dramatic musical typically draw inspiration from a literary source, which they then use as a vehicle for social commentary. 13 Show Boat’s libretto was rife with current social and political topics such as race relations, miscegenation, alcoholism, divorce, and subverted gender roles. Its characters are multi-dimensional, believable people who typify and then disperse conventional attitudes regarding theatrical and gender stereotypes. Perhaps the best summation of Show Boat’s originality and commercial viability is Lehmann Engel’s critique in The American Musical Theatre: “Show Boat raised the Negro problem, dispensed with the conventional pretty-girl chorus, and was unhappy in tone, but it was a big hit.” 14 As a mirror of turn-of-the-century American society, viewed through a filter 12 “The Broadway Canon from Show Boat to West Side Story and the European Operatic Ideal” in The Journal of Musicology 11/4 (fall 1993): 544. The New York Times review for the original 1927 production of Show Boat described the performance as “Excellent . . . perilously close to being the best New York has seen . . . an exceptionally tuneful score . . . every ingredient that the perfect musical should have.” 13 The inspiration for Show Boat was Edna Ferber’s novel, Show boat (Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Page, 1926). Kern and Hammerstein convinced her to allow their adaptation of it for the stage by promis-ing that they would not use a traditional musical comedy format. 14 rev. ed. (New York: MacMillan Co., 1975), 11. 6
Page 1 and 2: LEWIS, ANNE, D.M.A. An Examination
Page 3 and 4: APPROVAL PAGE This dissertation has
Page 5 and 6: TABLE OF CONTENTS iv Page ACKNOWLED
Page 7 and 8: for research, this paper will explo
Page 9: MacDonald, labeled musical theatre
Page 13 and 14: and individually as handwriting.”
Page 15 and 16: Methodology The base of research fo
Page 17 and 18: Feminine Character in Selected Libr
Page 19 and 20: from the 1920s, they are timeless i
Page 21 and 22: e helpful to recognize the specific
Page 23 and 24: as a Cinderella-type heiress who ma
Page 25 and 26: Vereen described the “blackface c
Page 27 and 28: Casino Theatre in Manhattan. The re
Page 29 and 30: functional sets, and an eleven-piec
Page 31 and 32: The History of the Musical, Show Bo
Page 33 and 34: amount of instrumental music, the d
Page 35 and 36: Ferber’s novel begins with the na
Page 37 and 38: Act II begins four years later as G
Page 39 and 40: CHAPTER III SOCIETAL STEREOTYPES OF
Page 41 and 42: communion.” 5 This bias continued
Page 43 and 44: children, however, did allow mother
Page 45 and 46: unhealthy, sub-human environments.
Page 47 and 48: dominated by masculine traits in ap
Page 49 and 50: magazines, including Ladies Home Jo
Page 51 and 52: Nineteenth Century Stereotypes of W
Page 53 and 54: usiness. She was responsible for th
Page 55 and 56: gender) inequality forced them inst
Page 57 and 58: The 1920s was the Jazz Age, a time
Page 59 and 60: CHAPTER IV THEATRICAL STEREOTYPES O
Page 61 and 62:
peoples . . . to save us from our o
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separate seating arrangements). The
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Feminine Aesthetic in Theatre Any a
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gossip columns. 17 Exploitation on
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means to economic or career advance
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Florenz Ziegfeld, reportedly, was q
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in a subservient role as a domestic
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looked, Magnolia decided, as if the
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When he holds me close, Close as we
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In the novel, Parthy Ann is a three
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opens her handbag and takes out a p
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“hero”) and the piano player (t
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the nineteenth century’s gender r
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of that time. Performance practice
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possibilities for manipulation and
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order while the musical number repr
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“Finding in that sound all the ki
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often distorts vibrant voices, rend
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elationships with other characters
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Finally, the process includes a mus
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any other theater music heard up to
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een presented in previous chapters,
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“Though the cold and brutal fact
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[Bridge]: When he goes away dat’s
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angelically while caught in the act
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The song appears twice more as a pl
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CHAPTER VI CURTAIN CALL The musical
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theatre performance practice. They
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BIBLIOGRAPHY General Sources Burkho
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Long, Mary Anne. “‘All Our Girl
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Kerber, Linda K., and Jane Sherron
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Levine, Lawrence W. The Opening of
Page 125 and 126:
Song Title: Show Title: Lyricist: C
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